Sunday, October 28, 2012

ugh. i just don't feel good. it's day 3 of the monthly....sorry if that is too much information for my male readers!

i just don't feel good. i have cramps, my back is killing me and someone is working a jack-hammer on my head.

today was the Fourchu Community Potluck Supper. and then the Halloween Dance. i barely managed to make a pot of stew to contribute. then i set our apartment-sized oven on fire when i was baking the blueberry oatmeal cookies.

it was all just too much. i was really tired. and just not feeling well. i had to call all of our friends - S, G, C and tell them that i just didn't think i could make it out today. i feel like i let all of my friends down.

jambaloney had to drive to Fourchu to deliver the stew....i just couldn't do it!

i haven't done my blog rounds in days...please forgives? i promise to catch up soon. just give me a day or two. my head is pounding and the sun was way too bright today??? i'm a sun baby, but when i am like this i become very vampiric!

i feel like a whiney baby.

he's in bed. he appreciated all of your comments of support to him. i no longer want to kill him. i wish i hadn't have let all of our friends down.

Friday, October 26, 2012

i can almost sorta' kinda' chuckle about this now after spending some time today with our friends E, C and G.

sorta' kinda'.

on wednesday morning, we had loaded up the truck with all of our mudding gear, had our mudding clothes on and were headed to our friends' C&G's house to finish mudding their dining room. it was a bright and beautiful day. we were happy to go and help get the mudding done before our friends arrived on thursday night - we wanted to surprise them!

we had driven about 100ft when jambaloney remembered that we hadn't locked our gate. no problem...our friend E's house is only 2ft away and we can turn around in her driveway and go back. no, says the self-admitted unable to back up guy! i'll just drive in reverse says the self-admitted unable to back up guy!

now you need to know a little bit about the geography of our road. first, it's a dirt road. and windy. and on one side of it is a 300ft ravine. since i know about the geography of our road, and self-admitted unable to back up guy is claiming he will just drive in reverse, i scream NO several times. then i scream "we're going over the edge". i hate the fact that i am always right especially in these types of situations!

thank goodness for big trees growing in the ravine! a tree stopped us from falling more than 15ft. but we went over the edge! and yes, my life flashed before my eyes. i had to climb out of the driver's side door and it was straight up because the truck was sideways.

i cursed and swore at him, called him every ugly name under the sun and then kicked him out of the house and told him to wait with the truck until the tow guy came! all i could think of was that i had just been so scared out of my mind that there was no way i could go to C&G's to finish the mudding!!! and we had promised them!!!!

i had to call C and explain why the mudding wouldn't be finished when they arrived. C calmed me down and it was only after talking to her that i realized i was in shock. and then realized that jambaloney must be as shooken up as i was. and he must have been feeling terrible and alone. i knew that i couldn't go down there with him, i knew that i would just yell and scream at him. so i did the next best thing, i called our friend S. she and jambaloney have a similar sense of humour and have gotten along ever since we met S. so i called her. she laughed and said of course she would go down with him - WITH her camera to get pics!!!!

as she was driving down our road, jambaloney later said that he prayed that it wasn't S, he would be too embarrassed if she saw him. so he jumped in the ravine behind the truck - bahahahahahah! then he realized that if it was S, that S would recognize our truck and get out and start looking around and calling for him. so he came up out of the ravine. i knew that S would cheer him up and calm him down....and she did. he was very appreciative that i sent her down with him....even when i still wanted to kill him!!!

and then lo and behold, the tow-truck guy arrives. it's a sticky situation but between him and jambaloney - they manage to get the truck out of the ravine. with no damage to it!

and then lo and behold, who comes speeding around the corner? our matriarch, V and her son B. i have mentioned our matriarch many times on the blog - we love her. jambaloney especially has an incredible soft spot for her. he loves dancing with her at dances and he thinks that the moon and stars exist because of her. i have to admit, i really love her too! well she comes speeding around the corner with her son B. why? because C is V's daughter and after i called C to tell her that i just wasn't up to doing any mudding after the accident, she called her mother and her mother and brother were there in minutes!!!

poor jambaloney took a real *ss-kicking from V! she yelled at him for 20 minutes that he should have called B to come and help! B yelled at him too, and said that he could have gotten another friend's truck that has a winch and gotten jambaloney out. then V yelled at him some more about how you call your family when you are in trouble!

FAMILY????

my goodness we got some good family here! once jambaloney came home, i had to call S and thank her. she was all "holy crap kymber! i thought he had a tire in the ditch! the whole truck was flipped over sideways!!!". i was all ya. then we talked about the potluck supper tomorrow - bahahahahahah!

then i had to call V and B and thank them for showing up. V went up one side of me and down the other for not calling her and B. i can only imagine the beating that jambaloney took from her!!!! but we just really don't want to take advantage of these people - ever! we are going to need B's help when we build our addition, we are going to need his help when we build a workshop for jambaloney - we don't want to take advantage of him!

anyway, we went back to C&G's yesterday....and all of the mudding holes that i had done had fallen in - grrrrrrrrr! i had to re-do all of them. jambaloney worked on some more corners. we didn't get to the ceiling. we'll do that on monday.

G sent us an email that he had written in english and then ran through the Google translate, into Korean. the english was hysterical. he basically thanked himself for the performance of work that had been done into his homely abode. we killed ourselves laughing over that one!!!! but when i read the actual Korean it was even funnier. unless you are a Korean linguist, seeing 17 pronouns in a row just probably isn't funny, but trust me when i say that i laughed my fool head off!

we went to visit C&G today. they hugged us and kissed us and had bought us a new muffin tin due to the fact that we only have one - bahahahahahah! they treated us like gold and told us we were family again. E was there for a short time too, we could never get enough of her and her beautiful boys. OMG - C&G loooooove those boys more than we do....and we really love E's boys.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

in my last post i mentioned infusing olive oil with red pepper flakes and how much we love pouring that on our home-made hummus! yummeh!

a friend, in her comment on that post mentioned that it was an unsafe thing to do. she then provided a link to a forum and when i checked the link, people REALLY were saying that is unsafe to infuse oils with herbs?!?!?!!?!?

this is absolutely crazy?!?!?!? europeans, middle easterners and asians have been infusing oils with herbs for thousands of years!!!

sometimes the internet is a great place to learn from....but you always have to be careful of your source! and from what i have been seeing and reading on the net lately...it's a bunch of ding-bat North Americans who are terrified of everything because they think everything contains salmonella and/or botulism! they are the ones that have been pushing the idea that raw milk is bad for you, don't eat eggs that come from chickens, and are terrified that fermented or home-made food can kill you! they are the ones who think that home-canned food is unsafe! and it drives me crazy!!!

listen, i am all for free choice! so if you want to eat over-processed, salt-laden crap food from the grocery store that is full of GMO's and pesticides - fill your boots! but stop spreading fear-mongering about natural, home-gorwn, home-made, very healthy for you food!!!

anyway, after that rant......for my friend...i took some pics from a few of my herb books for you that specifically refer to herb-infused oils. you can infuse oils with fresh or dry herbs. there are several techniques but i prefer the flat-out simple one - dump herbs in the bottle and fill the bottle with olive oil! you can also use mason jars or any other kind of clean jar.

this is a beautiful book that my sister, Helga sent me! i love this book!

as you can see, basil-infused oil and garlic-infused oil, is very popular! i only mention that because both of those oils were referred to as being especially unsafe at the forum that my friend sent me.

if anyone is interested, here is a link to a google search for "herb-infused oils" - https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&tok=4F1_oSw4z4mLlFOQjGt2FA&pq=her%20infused%20oil&cp=4&gs_id=t3&xhr=t&q=herb+infused+oil&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=herb+infused+oil&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=e8398791132636e1&bpcl=35466521&biw=1280&bih=962

here is a link to Martha Stewart's garlic and basil infused oils:

http://www.marthastewart.com/852369/garlic-oil

http://www.marthastewart.com/273644/basil-infused-olive-oil

Martha's recipes call for heating the garlic, and blanching the basil. i make both types of oils by just dumping the ingredients in the bottle and filling with oil. like i said previously, there are a variety of techniques but those are simply due to intensity and taste.

people have been dumping fresh, clean, HOME-GROWN herbs into oil since the beginning of time! as i will continue to do - internet scare-mongerers be damned!!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

of course we will start the post with an amazing sky pic for my sweetest of sweets, otherwise known as Helga.

is that a beautiful pic or what? sometimes, after taking a sky pic for my beautiful Helga, i just stand in a trance, staring at the sky. and i feel tiny. and insignificant. but i also feel purpose. and i also feel that one day i will go home to the sky. am i rambling? i'm tired and it's the middle of the night.

below - 3 big jars and one little jar of fermented beets and daikon radish - we love those! and 2 jars of shredded, fermented daikon radish, a type of korean kimchi, one done only with vinegar and salt, one done with vinegar, salt, ginger and garlic - yummeh! fermented food that is made in your own natural environment, using the naturally-occurring bacteria in your environment is soooo very good for you!

woops - slipped off into one of my trances again...more beautiful sky for Helga.

and more. but you can probably understand why i take so many pics of the sky for Helga. we have beautiful and amazing sky here. and beautiful clouds.

like these beauties.

speaking of beautiful...how about 4 jars of kimchi??? made from scratch and made the traditional way. they lived under my bed for a week, i shook them and watched them bubble everyday, now they live in the basement...in the cool and the dark. these should last about a month if we eat it sparingly...which we don't - bahahahahahah!

yummeh - local sausage, homegrown roasted potatoes, fermented beets, fermented carrots and ginger and fermented daikon radish - this was a definitely delicious meal! jambaloney grills those locally-sourced sausage to perfection. we love these sausage and they come from the NS mainland!

you would think that after attending 3 Thanksgiving dinners in a row last weekend that we would be sick of thanksgiving-like meals. i am sorry but you would be very wrong! i was craving some stuffing, smashed and gravy. here is some home-made croutons, wild rice, celery, apple and dried apricot stuffing.

and here is where it got stuffed.

and here is what it looked like when it was time to eat. these little chickens that jambaloney got on sale last year are divine. grass-fed, free-range and antibiotic-free. oh and local!

love on a plate! mashed turnip with butter and maple syrup, steamed rainbow carrots, stuffing, chicken, smashed and gravy....love on a plate!

want more love? red-pepper infused olive oil. this is after i first made it and it had a nice peppery bite. 4 days later the stuff is so hot and peppery...let's just say a little goes a long way!!! we pour this on our home-made hummus...it is so lovely!

being that autumn really is upon us we will pick the last of the nasturtiums, put some in oil to make a deliciously-peppery oil for hummus and a variety of things, as well as dry some to put into soups and stews over the winter. nasturtium flowers are delicious!!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

first up - sky pic for helga - this is gabarus lake on my way into town a couple of weeks back:

back to the plumbing, first thing i had to do was clear out the shelves... i had some help, i am sure you approve winston ;-))

here is the line in from the well. the well is a good 200+ feet from the house and buried deep enough that it hasn't frozen yet, i am NOT screwing around with this:

however, this elbow isn't in a great place. note the plastic insert and hose clamp, this it the standard way to connect flex pvc, i know it's not high-tech, but it works:

you can see the bare bones here, there is a nice lean on the pump doe to slightly too short hoses. you can also see where the plastic ends and the copper begins. i am not replacing any copper today, but i do need to re-position some of it:

which requires a blowtorch, this handy little number has a built in igniter - works well!

i have to separate this section:

done! (yes, all the water is off at this point)... i had to shorten it and reattach it - no problem!

oh yeah, everything else has been disconnected -;-)))

i tear out the crappy shelving AND remove the boards that were used to pour the concrete foundation... these are supposed to be removed as soon as the concrete is set. not these!! as an added bonus, they are still in place 10 + years later in various spots...gathering mold, rotting and keeping the moisture in the basement and in the foundation - NICE!!

i had measured and pre-built a stand for the new setup as well as the "thing" i made in my last post. i also made a small stand for the bladder so the line out would line up with my "thing"

i also made a stand for the pump and fastened it firmly in place

here is the finished product. i re-attached the copper pipe with the existing faucet and shut-off to my thing with clear 3/4" hose at the far left. the pump is at a lower level so that the hose from the well has a straighter path. plus, the whole setup is lower now. i positioned the bladder so that the line our from the pump has a more gradual curve than it did. the line from the bladder at the right then goes to the "thing"... right to left:

1- ball valve to cut water supply after the bladder (to change filter, add lines etc.)
2 - t-junction for outside hose line (which i ran outside through a hole to a proper sill-cock)
3 - pre-filter tap for misc rough use
4 - water filter with 3 settings; filter, pass-through and closed
5 - post-filter line for laundry - i changed the tap for a 3/4" t junction and set the actual tap closer to where the washer goes, yes, it is zip-tied to a metal rod that is set in the concrete - a bit rough, but it will do fine ;-))

here is our outdoor hose setup complete with sillcock - woot!

a week later, shelves are built and storage is MUCH better. home-made berkey is close to water supply and the washer has it's own home with a nice built-in step.

i used a bunch of thin scavenged shelving to line the right wall. this was great because ALL liquid stuff is in one place now (oils, solvents, paint, glue, soaps etc. etc.)

all in all the basement is 100 times better and so is the plumbing. i can control it and as an added bonus, the pump makes a lot less noise attached to wood than it did sitting on top the bladder.

aug 31st trout (really nice ones) - that was the last day of the season... no more of this until april 15th. apparently fall is striped bass season at fuller' bridge (5 mins from here) - i am going to give it a go and try garlic on the lure as wildflower suggested - wish me luck!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

so yesterday was October 8th and that is our friends' S&D's daughter's birthday...and she turned 8!!! anyway, they planned to have thanksgiving dinner yesterday and incorporate their daughters birthday as well.

a little about their daughter. her name is J. she is delightful. from the first minute she saw me she "glommed" me and has not let go since. every time we see her she spends the entire time in my lap or in my arms. she is beautiful, incredibly intelligent, incredibly-gifted and i love her. she pronounces my name "kym-bah".

i love her. she is so smart.

we went to S&D's, very dear friends of ours - in fact, S is the very first friend we made when we showed up at that first community event over a year and a half ago and she took us under her wing and to what we now call "the head table". she and D have 2 daughters, both named J - J1 is 13, super-freakin-intelligent and has just joined army cadets. and loves it! J2 just turned 8 yesterday and she is a royal terror.

so we went to S&D's...had a fabulous turkey dinner meal with all of the fixings...i ate all of the gravy without realizing it - oops, my bad - but S just laughed it off. D's Mom and brother were also there and it was nice to see them again. J2 kept saying throughout supper - "kym-bah, this is the best thanksgiving ever!". and we would all ask her - "why?". and she would roll her eyes and say "because it's my boothday too!" - bahahahahahah! she rubbed me and touched me and put her feet on me and sat on me all throughout dinner. the weight of her little body felt good and felt healing after this weekend. one life passes...and one continues.

dinner is over and we all go into the living room to open presents. "kym-bah, you sit beside me". she tears through gifts with no thought of anything except ripping open the paper and getting the gift. once she sees the gift, she dumps it in my lap and moves on to the next. i try and re-pack the gifts as best as i can.

the week previously when her mother, S, asked us to come to supper and the party, i asked her if J2 liked barbies. i have a collection of barbies and they really have no place here in the Manor. S said that J2 loooooves barbies so i told S about my collection. and S said that i could not give J2 collectors items because she would rip them out of the box - destroy their clothes, their hair, etc.

anyway, i gave her the first in the series, collector's edition Pink Ice 1996 barbie. it's worth about $38 bucks so not too expensive. and it was in it's original box and the box had never been opened. J2 screamed when she saw that the box was from me and jambaloney. she tore through the wrapping like a meth head searching under sofa cushions and then screamed "oh this is the best present ever!" - bahahahahahahah! she ooohed and awwwed and she read the front of the box "foost in uh see-rees, coe-lektuhs uh-dee-shon, pink ice". then she hugged me and hugged me. i told her that i had had that barbie for over 15 years.

"kym-bah, you never took her out of the box?" - no, honey, i was collecting barbies then and she is my favourite. "kym-bah, can i take her out of the box?". of course honey.

the box is a goner in seconds. like totally ripped to shreds and there is no taping it back together. the two of us undo all of the twist-ties together. her mother says, "J2, that is a collectors item and you don't play with it. we will put it on it's stand on your dresser."

J2 - "kymbah, what's wrong with her hair? i can't get these curls out!". she rips off the elastic holding the barbie's beautifully-coifed hair and then starts trying to brush it. "kym-bah, you hold the head and pull when i say" as she starts trying to brush the barbie's hair. after she tried brushing for a bit, she got tired and put the barbie on the table on it's stand. her sister, J1 said "J2, why did you put the barbie on it's stand?"

J2 put her arms on her hips, rolled her eyes, and in the most petulant voice i have ever heard said "because it's a COE-LEKTER'S UH-DEE-SHON"!!!!!!! the barbie's perfectly coifed curls were sticking out everywhere in something that looked like a Medusa-afro, the back of the dress was ripped, we had lost the silver shoes somewhere in the couch....but yes, it WAS a collector's edition and she knew it. she loved it.

we all killed ourselves laughing.

what a way to end thanksgiving. with many hugs and kisses from 2 beautiful girls and from our friends. with bellies full of turkey and all of the fixings.

Monday, October 8, 2012

so after the sad events of saturday night/sunday morning, jambaloney and i woke up at about 1pm. we were expected at our friends' C&G's for 4:30pm. we were tired and hurting, considered cancelling, but these people have been so welcoming and warm to us...they have accepted us as family - how could we cancel? so we dragged our tired, sorry and sad butts outside on the deck, held hands, cried, talked for about an hour and that's when we remembered - OH MY GOODNESS WE PROMISED TO MAKE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS - ARGHGHGHGHGHGH!

shrugging off all sadness and going into basic training mode - we started whipping up the blueberry muffins. you will remember that jambaloney went blueberry picking at our friends' E&D's blueberry farm which is here in our community. their blueberry bushes are huge and so are their blueberries. they paid jambaloney in blueberries so let's just say that we got tons! we are eating them regularly and there isn't a blueberry on the planet that can match these.

anyway, while jambaloney was out helping them pick them, our friends E and S told jambaloney that i should make blueberry muffins for them. when jambaloney told me, i thought that they were just kidding. but then at last week's dance it came up that i hadn't made the blueberry muffins. i asked them if they were serious and they said yes - they wanted their muffins. so i told them that we would make a batch for E&D and a batch for S&D for thanksgiving weekend.

so Operation Blueberry Muffin Making began. we were so tired. and emotionally drained. but we had been called to task and we are soldiers. the worst thing - we only have one muffin tin!!! oh crap - we had to make 2 batches in less than 2 and 1/2 hours, and shower and get ready and show up on time. i did the calculations. we would never make it on time. so i called G and told them that we would be running late. "no worries" was the reply. as always.

muffins are made. we are dressed and ready to go. we arrive late and everyone has arrived. and has been waiting for us. not a word about us being late is said. a million hugs, kisses and welcomes. the house smells divine. C has put on a beautiful spread. the adults were assigned to one table, the kids to another table (the youngest kid is 16, the rest are over 20. including B and C who are older than us but wanted to be sitting with the kids!). we were honoured that we were seated at the adults table - bahahahahahah! V, our matriarch, was assigned to sit at the head of the table. she gave her seat to jambaloney so that he could sit next to me instead of across from me. well, that and the fact that she really loves jambaloney...and he really loves her. and i love the both of them!

C and G had the turkey and all of the fixins ready for all of us. we filled our plates and then filled them again. we talked and laughed and listened to the others in the other room talking and laughing. everyone in that house was related - minus a girlfriend, a boyfriend and me and jambaloney. we couldn't tell the difference at all. these people welcomed us into their family from the first night out when we met E's son, M, who we love, we love all of her sons....but right from the get-go this family has welcomed us. as had S and D's family.

we had a great time. after everyone else had left, C and G gave us the keys to their house. they live in Dartmouth on the mainland and plan to move here full-time in 3 years. between now and then, they will work on their cottage. they need someone to do the mudding on their walls. jam and i are pretty good at that. C's brother B has been doing all of the remodelling and putting in new sub-floors and floors but they need someone to mud and asked us to do it. of course we said yes. so they handed us the keys to their house and we will mud their dining room so that they can paint it.

i feel that because we handed our keys to Jimmy and Barb 3 years ago and they took such good care of our place that we need to pay it forward and this is the right opportunity.

we had a wonderful time with our family yesterday eve/night. we love E's boys, they are such good boys and they invigorate us. we love everyone in the family and it is such a nice feeling to sit down with such a large family of people who have known each other for their entire lives, people who have only known us for less than 2 years, and yet - we felt such a part of them.

thank you C and G for inviting us, feeding us so well, making us feel so welcome and leaving us your keys and entrusting us to do a good job for you. we promise to do our best. our absolute best. your trust means the world to us...we are so grateful.

i felt that this sky pic was appropriate for this post. i will get to the sad stuff in a minute as there is much fun and nice stuff to tell first. plus i want to explain it all chronologically as it happened.

we went to our friends' C&B's house on saturday evening. as we walked in the door we were met with hugs and the delicious smell of turkey and all of the fixings - it smelled delicious!!! their children S and D were there, along with S's new boyfriend T who had us in fits of laughter all evening long. at one point i said "my goodness, he's priceless"! without skipping a beat, T points at me and says "she says priceless" and then points at S and says "she says worthless - i'm confused". like i say, he had us in fits. we love C&B's kids, they are really good kids!!! as is T!!!

so we wolfed down plates of delicious food - they put on a real nice spread for us. and of course, C made sure to pick up my favourite wine. we sat around the table eating, chatting and laughing - is there a better way to spend Thanksgiving?

then we went to the bake sale that was being held to benefit a girl in our community - she is taking pre-vet courses and will be going to South Africa to volunteer at a clinic. we all purchased some delicious baked goods then it was back to C&B's to get ready for the dance - woohoo! we were all excited. except that B hadn't been feeling well all day but was putting out great effort - we could tell that he was tired. so after a glass of wine and a few drinks for the others we were off to the dance. the dance was to raise money for the young girl going to South Africa as well. the regular crew was there and everyone was having a fantastic time. B still wasn't feeling well so he went home early. the rest of us all danced and sang and before we knew it, it was 1am in the morning.

and then the emergency happened. we found out later that the head of our Fourchu EMT had been called out to a house in the community where 3 older ladies lived. they had been to the dance but had left when one of them wasn't feeling well. they arrived home and when the lady still didn't feel well, they called down to the dance to ask for R to come and check on her. when R arrived, the lady (G) was feeling gassy and burping, but she told R that she was feeling much better and that she was sorry for bothering R. R of course recommended that her sisters take her to the emergency just to be safe, but G refused.

so at 2am when the party was winding down, we saw our friend D (R's husband) running out the door without saying goodbye to anyone, he jumped in his truck and sped out of the parking lot like a mad man. we knew that something must be up, and of course we thought it had something to do with R. so we rushed out and jumped in our truck and followed him to his driveway where we met back up with B. B explained that an emergency call had come over our beepers, waking him out of bed and calling D. the address that came over the beeper was scrambled - but B and D guessed that it was G who had called the dance hall previously. we all rushed out to that house and sure enough, we were in the right place.

R, D and i ran into the bedroom and G was on the floor. R started barking orders, immediately set up the CPR machine, and began CPR. D got out the oxygen tank, i got out the mask and we put the tank together and put the mask on G. R performed 2 mins of CPR at a time, as advised by the machine, 3 times. if you have never performed CPR on a live-person for 2 mins at a time - trust me, it is not easy. and R has a bad back and hip. but she was a trooper!

at that point our 2 other trained EMT members arrived - S and In. S jumped in to relieve R on CPR and In took over setting up the blood pressure machine. they had me hold the oxygen mask. S did two 2minute turns on CPR and then said - get in there kymber! so i jumped in and performed 2 rounds of CPR. S took over for another 2 mins and at that point the ambulance arrived. once they came in, they took over and we all went out into the kitchen to comfort the ladies. jambaloney made me so proud - i asked the ladies if there was anything i could get them and they said no, that jambaloney had already asked them that about 10 times. so we went outside and one of the ladies came with us. there was a group of other people in the yard. then D came to the door and asked the lady to come back in the house. then jambaloney and i went in and were told that we had lost G.

i had been holding in my tears up to that point but then they started rolling down my face - all of us had tears rolling but not really crying. the ambulance driver then spent the next hour and half asking questions of G's sisters while we all waited for the RCMP to show up. we had expected that the ambulance would take G with them but that is not how it works here. the ambulance driver called in to the Medical Examiner in Sydney, they dispatched the RCMP, then we had to wait for the RCMP to get there and assure there was no foul play or anything like that, then the RCMP would call the Medical Examiner who would then send out a different ambulance to pick up G. our friend B said that he would stay with the ladies until the second ambulance came. we found out later that the ambulance didn't come until 7:30 in the morning and B stayed with the ladies until then.

we got home at about 4am and we felt that we had been run over by a tank. we had had such a good day, such a good supper at our friends' house and such a good time at the dance. we sat at the table and talked and cried, jambaloney finally had to go to sleep at 6am...i came up to the computer and read all of the blog updates on our blogroll. thank you all for your blogs. i didn't leave any comments, i was just too shaken. i have never performed CPR on a live person before and i have never been in that situation before. neither had jambaloney. we were shooken up and it really hurts to lose someone when everyone is trying so hard to save them. our EMT members did a fantastic job - we were very proud of them!

but i was able to calm myself by catching up on all of your posts...it gave me a sense of normalcy that i needed before i could go to sleep. i finally went to bed at about a quarter to 8...and we both got up at about 1pm. we were hurting. and sad. we didn't know the lady very well, but we had met her and her sisters at several events over the past year and a bit. we felt sad for our friends who had tried so hard to revive her. we felt sad for our friends because the whole community of Fourchu is a very close community.

however, that evening we went to our friends' C and G's house for Thanksgiving supper with their family which includes our good friends E, V, C, B, D and E's kids JD, N, and H, as well as JD's boyfriend S and H's girlfriend J. i will tell you all about the fantastic time that we had in tomorrow's update. it was just so nice to be surrounded by a large group of people, all of whom are related (well not the boyfriends and girlfriends, of course!) - but it was so nice to be surrounded by a large family after the previous evening's sad events - a family that always treats us as one of theirs. we needed that.

being surrounded by them after the sadness of the night before reminded me of the cycle of life, reminded me to be thankful and grateful to be home, here on my island, to be thankful that we have been accepted the way that we have in our community, to be thankful for the wonder and beauty in the environment, to be be thankful and grateful for the caliber of the people who live here, who invite us into their communities, their houses and their families. we are so grateful.

and we are grateful for the beautiful and supportive friendships that we have made here on this blog and on your blogs.

now you didn't really think i could write a post and not include a sky pic for my dearest Helga?!?!?!!? jeesh!

we have had 2 Thanksgiving Day dinners with our friends and tonight we are going to our other friends S&D's house for their daughter's birthday party. this has been an awe-inspiring thanksgiving weekend for us and we have both been touched.

i hope that all is well with all of you wherever your little corner of the world is.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

woohoo! it's thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and we will be busy meeting up with friends and eating lots of turkey! it's going to be an awesome weekend!

but it has been a bit of whirlwind crazy week around here what with harvesting, cooking, baking, etc.

what a wonderful way to start thanksgiving day - this pic was taken for my sweet Helga just before sunrise this morning:

it was a very beautiful way to start the day! it is now sunny and blue and we are doing a few projects around the house before heading off to our friend's C and B's house for thanksgiving dinner. after that, we are off to the Fourchu community centre dance - it should be a blast.

here's another beautiful sky pic for Helga!

tomorrow we are off to our other friends' C and G for thanksgiving dinner with them and their family - yummeh - bring on the turkey and the smashed and gravy! i love smash and gravy! my fave food below - roast baby!

About Framboise Manor

Framboise Manor is our Bug-Out Location (BOL) that we have been living in since December 2010. As can be seen by the above picture - calling it simply a "Manor" doesn't do it justice - we bet you think it is more like an "Estate", eh?

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Who Are We?

we are jambaloney and kymber. here's a pic of us below...we look very happy and content. it's because we really are!

About jambaloney

(he's only 23 in this pic...he has 20+years of additional muscle now...if you can believe it!)

kymber here and talking about jambaloney.

i've always called him my angel. my rock. my best half. the best part of what i have always wanted to become.

he has a soul as big as the biggest mountain, he is strong, he is in incredible physical condition, he is 51 and yet most people think he is under 40. he is humble and modest, charming, gorgeous and will help anyone with anything at anytime. he never grumbles and only every now and again complains or is a tiny bit cranky (nothing that a hug can't fix!). he can cut both sides out of 70 tires in minutes, build raised beds from scrap wood that he drags out of the forest, weedwhack 800ft of our road down to the river, and haul more wheelbarrows of dirt, mulch, rocks and seaweed than is probably medically-advised. he's learned how to braid, make bread and no one makes better rice - not even the chinese. he supports my every, crazy endevour. he went 44 years without a driver's license and got his license after being trained by my crazily-wonderful french canadian friend in 2 weeks. she never stopped talking the whole time. in french.

he has biked everywhere his entire life, at one job he biked 24km EACH WAY. that's to and from! 24km to work AND 24km from work! oh and just accidentally has an honours degree in philosophy.

i believe that he is Our Lord's most beautiful and perfect creation. but i might be biased. he can very accurately shoot a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and right. and his aim is dead on.

he is bow-legged and only 5'7", but has the most incredible eyes. and a tiny mole on his upper lip. he writes the most romantic "insta-poems". he tells me he loves me several times a day. he calls me "babe" and "honey". and he means it.he loves hot sauce and spicey things like cayenne and banana peppers, he buys (or now picks) me flowers, he left a lucrative, high-paying IT job and his family to follow me here to this remote little island. he builds me shelves and washes all of our laundry with me by hand.

oh and he was baptized Anglican. and was an alter boy. sheesh. somehow, through my intervention, i am turning him into a pagan-christian-fundamentalist-confuscian. look, even i can't figure that out!

the name jambaloney is a nickname that i gave him over 10 years ago. he still uses it. he can be reached at "jambaloney@gmail.com". he loves comments or emails. and he loves me.

if i were given the opportunity to wish one thing for the world - i would wish that every woman on the planet had a jambaloney. i know that i could save the world this way. i have friends who have asked me to clone him. i am trying. believe me, i am trying. one day i will perfect the science involved, and when that happens, i promise all of you a jambaloney.

i love him more than...breathing, lobster, boiled dinner, fresh bread out of the oven, bugging out, singing back up for Madonna (ok...i made that one up!), fresh sheets on the bed, a glass of red wine after a long day, sunflower seeds, lavender, growing my own potatoes, T.S. Eliot, dancing, my babies (who are really just cranky old cats!) and the Bible.

i love him more than i love Framboise Manor. and i really love Framboise Manor.

About kymber

(this pic might seem odd. trust me, it's not. 20 yrs ago kymber went shopping with a girlfriend from the military and bought this dress. then she hooked up with that girlfriend recently. they caught up through email and one day kymberz friend mentioned that specific dress. kymber said she still had it (kymber still has her prom gown for crying out loud!). the friend did not believe it. so we had to take a pic of kymber wearing the 20yr old dress for her friend. kymber always likes to add accessories...and well, we had the bunny ears laying around. ya know, cuz everyone always has pink bunny ears laying around. ok, that's it...i am out of here! jambaloney)

what can i say about kymber?? A LOT!!most of it will have to wait for blog entries ‘cuz i just don’t have enough space here to do her justice…

so i’ll have to do my best… first and foremost, kymber is my partner and i will love her forever. she is the best partner anyone could ever have, i am one lucky guy!! she is 46, she is sweet as can be, smart as a whip, super cute, exceptionally feminine, strong as an ox, honest, kind, empathetic, wise, an amazing dancer, a master wit in speaking and writing….i could go on..i will!

at 5’ 1’’ she packs a wallop – a true force of nature -she is a master gardener and chef and spent 10 years in the Canadian Military – she has done 2 tours of Alert (the north bloody-cold pole). she is a UN-certified Korean linguist and spoils our 2 cats rotten. she also spent 12yrs working in the federal government, as a communications analyst at SolGen (now PSEPC) and Fintrac. she loves nature in the true sense of the phrase..the wildflowers, insects and birds here at framboise manor keep her entranced and captivated for hours.

anyone who is her friend knows that she will stop at nothing to help and heal, dedication and loyalty are an integral part of who she is and she is dead serious about anything she puts her mind to. yet she maintains the most delicate touch and a smile on her face always, never afraid to live and love no matter where and when.

she is the most genuine human being i have ever met! and she has encouraged me to embark on the most crazy and exciting adventure i could imagine… thank you babe - i sooo love you!!!